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Eurobricks Event 2018 - Information Topic

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I set up all my Pirates legos, built a large Pirates world, hope you like it!
FLickr
https://www.flickr.c...57652284544180/
Pirates! by K R, on Flickr
Pirates! by K R, on Flickr
Pirates! by K R, on Flickr
Pirates! by K R, on Flickr
Pirates! by K R, on Flickr
Pirates! by K R, on Flickr

173D
Another one of my favorite ships that I decided to modify. Now this one I turned into and Imperial Ship. Mostly because I have no imperial ships. It now has 6 cannons, a full deck, and a few other things. Hope you like it.
Untitled by K R, on Flickr
I took your advice and added a yellow stripe to the ship. I think it makes it look much better. Also you will notice in the above pic it now had 4 cannons and an improved deck. More pics to come in the future.
Untitled by jreacher2003, on Flickr
Untitled by jreacher2003, on Flickr
The flickr Link to the rest!
https://www.flickr.c...57651327018300/

Greetings to all!
I'm fairly new to this site and these forums, and only started commenting in earnest about 4 months or so ago, after a period of more than a year lurking.
First off, Eurobricks is my "go-to" site for LEGO news and information - what a fantastic resource! I admire and appreciate all who take their time to post thoughts, instructions, solutions, creations, etc. It is all enormously inspiring.
A couple of things about me...
1) I got out of my "Dark Ages" around the time of the birth of my daughter in 2009. My first exposure to nouveau-LEGO was the release of the Emerald Night, which I saw in the windows of my local LEGO store. That train just caught my eye, and I couldn't stop thinking about it, I couldn't get that damned thing out of my head. A gracious mother-in-law, who assumed I had gone temporarily insane with the prospect of being a first-time dad, bought it jointly with my wife for my Christmas gift.
The Emerald Night has a solid hold on my #2 spot for "Best LEGO set ever" (#1 remains, and always will remain, the Black Seas Barracuda which I got for Christmas when I was 6).
2) I received the Black Seas Barracuda for Christmas in 1989. I got my Emerald Night in 2009, 20 years later.
3) In no particular order - my favorite themes are/have been: Town, Train, Pirates, Creator "Expert" (modulars) and the Collectible Minifigure series.
4) I've also made recent room for Alien Conquest (RIP), The LEGO Movie, and Friends for my daughter.
5) I am 30 yrs old and live in Portland, OR - USA.
6) In addition to LEGO, my hobbies include: cooking, illustration, all things comics and graphic novels, and movies. I'm a budding audiophile and woodworking enthusiast.
A couple of things I love about the LEGO hobby:
-It gives me time to bond with my kids. It's fun to share something we can all relate to and for different reasons/motives.
-The quality of the higher-end sets just boggles my mind.
-The increased color pallet over the past few years
-It may seem odd to say so, but I really like the direction of graphics team - the minifigures have so much personality and quality of printing has just gotten better and better
-Correlations to my own job. Substitute "plastic injected molds" for "sand-casted steel," and the companies I've worked for professionally are very similar to LEGO (down to the manufacturing processes, supply chains, etc.) In fact, we use LEGO Adult education products for some of our internal training courses.
Things I don't like about the LEGO hobby and wish would change:
-Stickers. Boo.
-Poorer quality manufacturing from overseas sources
-Designs that got pumped into market way too fast. I almost feel like LEGO is overheating a bit these days and almost needs to scale back number of themes or new products to market. Too many are half-baked (and don't give me the "target market" argument - a poorly-thought out set design is a poorly-thought out set design, be it geared to the 5-12 age group or the 12-16 age group)
-Pricing - especially for 2014.
-Recent changes to exclusives discount policies (booo!)

Hello Classic Pirates fans, and especially Black Seas Barracuda or Dark Shark fans,
For many times I wanted to look at this magnificent set on my monitor, and I always wanted to see it hi-res.
Considering this is the only available image with the official display of this set:
I think we definitely need an update.
When this image was initially scanned, it was good, because at that time could fit our screen width, but in 2012 (2013 coming soon), it's hard to look at a picture with a resolution of only 690x485 pixels.
Yesterday I finished working on this, and I succeeded into make this picture at much higher resolutions up to monitors with a width of 2560.
Here is a list of images and wallpapers with this set for all aspect ratios, 4:3, 5:4, 16:9 and 16:10.
Click on it, and you will be redirected to the image.
4:3 - 1024 x 768
4:3 - 1600 x 1200
5:4 - 1280 x 1024
16:9 - 1365 x 768
16:9 - 1920 x 1080
16:9 - 2560 x 1440
16:10 - 1280 x 800
16:10 - 1440 x 900
16:10 - 1680 x 1050
16:10 - 1920 x 1200
16:10 - 2560 x 1600
Enjoy!

~Black Seas Barracuda's little secrets~
Hello everyone! Welcome to my first article. As a new Classic-Pirates blogger, I'll try to focus on bringing you some things you may not know about classic pirates sets. And what better set to start with than the best set ever, aka 6285 - Black Seas Barracuda?
First, we'll see what are the differences between European and US package, then I'll show you some little secrets that lie behind this legendary set. Now let's go, I hope you'll enjoy :)!
~US/European differences~
US Box
European Box
At first glance, they look quite identical. However, the US version has some additional text on it : "Pirate system" under the Legoland logo, and "Ages 9-12" next to the Lego logo. Nothing too mind blowing, let's open the lid!
US lid
European lid
We have the same close-ups of the set, organized differently though. But there is one big difference : the US version has got a nice text which explain the Pirate theme context :
The reason why only the US version has it is simple : it's for english speaking countries, whereas European version is distributed to many countries with many different languages. It only has a small text in several languages which says "The ship does not float". It may sound trivial now, but remember this was one of the first Lego ship ever.
Boxes sides
I'll let you guess which box is the US version (tip : in Europe, it is named "Dark Shark" ). Another notable difference between classic US and European boxes is that US versions always have shown parts count (under the name). This time I can't explain it (maybe another translation problem? Today they use "pcs/Stck/pzs/db"). European box has safety instructions.
Box content
For those wondering how it looks inside. It's the US version. (I didn't shoot the european version, but it has some very small differences in the plastic molds : the red oars are placed differently. I'll update this thread soon with a picture). The white boxes are quite unusual, don't they? Also, my US version has shooting cannons, which came only in very early versions of BSB.
Okay, now it's time to move onto interesting stuff. How many of you know that BSB and CC sails came uncut? Here's a proof :
Yes, you had to cut them yourself. I didn't mention it, but my US set is technically new (all bags have been opened and mixed, but it was never built), this is why my sails still are new. There was also a clue of it being never built in the "box content" picture, but only a few with very good eyes and Lego knowledge will see it :). If any of you think to have found what I mean, feel free to say it :), otherwise you'll understand when I review it.
Okay, you knew all that? Let's dig some more to uncover dark secrets!
Did you know that the very first European batch had some issues? It was by chance that I found it and so far I'm the only one to have came by it. I bought my european BSB second hand, but mint in box (this is the box shot for comparisons). At first, when I started to build it, everything looked fine. However, at step 6, a loose page fell from instructions. I first thought that they were damaged, but no, it was a single face printed page, with another step 6 :
It took me a few seconds to understand : the original step 6 had an error, can you spot it?
Loose page is on the left, original instructions on the right.
The first printed instructions came with an error, and TLG had to add a loose correction page. But wait, there is more!
When I had to attach the rigging, something felt strange. I had previously owned a BSB and something struck me as odd with this one. The rigging looked way too much bent :
I've checked everything to see where I made an error, but everything was fine. I thought there was another instructions error, not corrected this time, but didn't find anything. Then I tried with another rigging from my Rock Island Refuge set : it fitted perfectly.
That's right, first BSB batches riggings were different. I've made a small investigation, and found why they looked bent :
On the top, two of my BSB riggings, on the bottom, two of my Rock Island Refuge riggings. Yes, they're one stud longer. Looking closer, I found this :
The left one is the "normal" one, the middle one is the one which came with my BSB. Can you see the little numbers? I've checked all my other pirates sets with these riggings, they all have the 02 model. TLG first made them one stud too long (28 studs), then they made a "02" 27 studs long version to fit better.
Want more? Okay, I have one last little secret : a few days ago, a fantastic official stop-motion video has been posted, showing the first wave of Pirates sets. By looking at it, I've seen something on the Black Seas Barracuda which do not appear on the final model :
Obviously, the BSB should have come with a ship's bell. I've always wondered why did they put an arch there, now I know. I think they removed it because at this time it probably was seen as an illegal build, or maybe the round brick fell easily? However I'll add one to my model, as it looks fantastic!
Well, I think it's over. I hope you've had a good time reading this, see you in a next article for more classic-piratey things! And if you know something I don't, please comment it so I can add this to my article, you'll get credit :).
[bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

Here is the official stop motion movie created by Lego Group in 1989 in order to advertise on VHS and not only.
The movie was dedicated to UK, Europe, so the names of ships and characters are different than in US.
Enjoy!

A frequently asked question by newcomers is where to buy Pirate LEGO.
So this thread will be a definitive list for all those who ask - rather than having individual threads for each query.
eBay
Amazon.com
LEGO Shop
BrickLink
Eurobricks Buy, Sell, Trade and Finds Forum
Custom
Brick Arms
The Little Arms Shops
BrickForge
BaronSat
Original Post
Hey all. I used to be really into pirates back in it's heyday (early 90's) and I still have my Black Seas Barracuda :) Recently I've been getting into Lego Pirates again, and been hunting on Bricklink and eBay for the last 2 weeks. So far, I picked up a Skulls Eye Schooner (complete, excellenct condition) from Bricklink for $140 and I also got a Lagoon Lock-Up on eBay for $15.00. I think I got a pretty good deal, what do you guys think? *pirate*